The Creepypasta Ponies
by PotterPhantomKitten
Summary: Creepypastas are meant to scare, but what if they weren't just stories? And worse still, what if you had to experience them? The citizens of Equestria are forced to survive creepypastas of increasing levels by the Iridescents, multi-colored ponies who are the primary hosts as they force their participants to seek out the 8 Slender Notes. But can anypony make it out alive?
1. Not Just Urban Legends

**A/N: Okay, okay, I know very well I have to update my other fics - but I kinda lost my writing motivation and hit blocks for a while.. But now, my urge to write is coming back, and I think I'm going to be able to update Pages of Harmony and Wedding of Deception relatively soon! Anyway, I'm a BIG fan of creepypastas, so I decided to do this - what if the MLP characters had to experience the various creepypastas? Thus, this was born! Enjoy! **

**NOTE: Fics like Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory will NOT be included. They are creepy fanfics, but not creepypastas which have an "urban legend/fourth-wall-will-not-protect-you" sense to them.**

**Disclaimer: MLP belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro. All creepypastas belong to their respective owners.**

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Any luck?"

The first speaker shook her head in exasperation, causing the shimmering colors of her mane and body to shift in waves before they settled, into their steady change of color. She glared at the teenage colt beside her, a knife twirling in his hoof and his lidless eyes clearly expressed his impatience.

"Jeffrey, stop it," snapped another iridescent pony, a stallion this time, glaring at the knife-wielding colt. "We can't know if they're good enough if we don't pay attention to them."

"It's _Jeff_," the colt insisted, eyebrows furrowed into a glare. "No one calls me 'Jeffrey'."

"Point is, we're your superiors in this matter," the stallion said firmly, eyes brightening in their multicolored light. "_We_ decide which ones to pull into our world here for the trials. _You_just help as an accomplice."

Jeff aimed the knife at the two shimmering ponies, but there was no reaction from them. It was an empty threat, and they knew it. Jeff only used his knife when he deemed it necessary.

"I'm just being impatient because I'm _bored_," Jeff sighed. If he had possessed eyelids, he would be closing his eyes in exasperation "It's been month since we've seen anypony go through the levels, even if not very many get far."

The iridescent mare looked over at Jeff with a smile. "And that's why it will be such a refresher to start them up again. We haven't put ponies through the games for a while, and we want to make the challenges worth observing."

"Good point…"

The iridescent ponies turned their attention to the screen in front of them, a trans dimensional view that allowed them to observe potential participants for their little tormenting games. At the moment, their view was trained on the interior of a library, located in the town of Ponyville. There, a small group was gathered, where they were discussing a subject that was relevant to the interest of their observers…

**-0-0-**

With no knowledge of the beings who were quietly watching their every move, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were gathered around in the library, the lights dimmed as the library's owner read aloud from a book of scary stories. The ponies and dragon in attendance were sitting in a circle, all eyes on the reader.

"_When I returned to the abandoned house, there was no sign of anypony… except for one thing._"

The intrigue felt in the room was almost tangible as the group leaned in closer, both afraid and eager to hear how the rest of the story went.

"_In the very spot where I had last encountered Slender Pony, there was a note, in my sister's writing. It wasn't a plea for help, or gave any hint to where she might be. It was just a circle, with an 'X' crossing through it, and the words 'Always watches. No eyes_."

A few of the others visibly trembled, moving closer to each other.

"_Eventually, my sister and I were reunited, as she mysteriously returned about three days after the incident. She was unharmed physically, but she was psychologically scarred, always wary around dark places and faceless mannequins from then on. Even so, she never mentioned Slender Pony to anypony else besides me. But we both learned one thing in that encounter._

You never truly find Slender Pony.

He_ is the one who finds _you."

As Twilight concluded the tale, she noticed the gaze of all her friends, wide-eyed and looking like they wanted to check over their shoulders just to be safe. She noticed that Fluttershy and Spike looked especially scared, as if afraid that Slender Pony was going to pop up right behind him and steal him away.

A sympathetic look came over Twilight's face as she set the book down. "Guys, it's okay."

"But… but…" Spike stammered, his eyes wide. "It seems so real…. All those stories about Slender Pony are everywhere…"

"And, and if so many ponies have talked about it," Fluttershy said quietly, "then it has to be true, right?"

"Trust me," the purple unicorn insisted, smiling gently to reassure her friends. "There's no such thing as Slender Pony or a deadly sleep experiment or anything. Those stories are made up."

"No matter what a _certain_pony may try to tell to tell you," Applejack said, shooting a glare at the pony that had been just been trying to sneak up behind them.

Rainbow Dash slumped back into a sitting position as her cover was blown, having lost the element of surprise. "Aw come on, Applejack, I was just about to scare him!"

Rarity shot a stern glance at the cyan pegasus as she pat Spike on the head. "Rainbow Dash, you have no reason to try to freak us out more than we already feel. Slender Pony is already unnerving enough as it is."

As the reader closed the book, Pinkie Pie craned her neck to get a better look at the title, _Slender Pony and Other Creepypastas_. "Twilight, why do they call these stories 'creepypastas'?" The party pony frowned, scratching the top of her head in confusion. "They aren't made of food, and they don't seem very tasty to me."

"I think it's because they're meant to be a creepy sort of food for the mind, like pasta," Twilight guessed with a shrug. "But to be honest, I don't really know."

"_I_ would have called them _creepycumbers_!"

Everypony looked at Pinkie incredulously. "What?"

"Creepycumbers!" Pinkie clarified, the discussing lightening her mood from the Slender Pony story. "It's like_creepy_ and _cucumbers_put together!"

Applejack cracked a smile and arched her brow. "Why in tarnation did you pick cucumbers, of all foods?"

Pinkie shrugged. "It just has a nice ring to it!"

The atmosphere of the room was considerably brightened as everypony laughed good-naturedly at Pinkie's reasoning.

"Whatever they're called," Twilight assured, "those stories about Slender Pony, haunted games, whatever - they're just urban legends. None of them are true."

"Positive?" Fluttershy said quietly.

"Positive." Twilight affirmed with a nod.

**-0-0-**

With the reading completed and the lavender unicorn's assurance, the inhabitants of the room were surprised at the irony of their topic.

"How very wrong you are," the iridescent mare said quietly, her gaze lingering on Twilight.

"And you all will find that out very soon…" the stallion said as a further add-on.

The opalescent pair, along with Jeff, looked behind them as they heard hoofsteps. Walking out of the shadows was an extremely tall pony who towered over them. A faceless pony who had a black circle with an 'X' crossing through it as a cutie mark.

Slender Pony.

A chuckle from the female iridescent pony. "It looks like our next batch of participants is ready." She glanced at the gathered ponies. "Time to bring them in."

Despite a lack of a face, the trio had a feeling that Slender Pony was mentally smiling.

The two shifting ponies spoke in unison, voices seeming to rise in volume as their eyes quickly flashed in several different colors.

"Open the portal."


	2. The Participants

**A/N: Here we are, the next chapter, where we meet everypony else who will be involved!**

After having heard the Slender Pony story, the rooms inhabitants weren't exactly willing to read any more unnerving tales. They all agreed then and there that that was enough scary stories for the night.

"Don't worry everypony," Twilight said matter-of-factly as her magenta-colored magic levitated the creepypasta book up to its place on the bookshelves. "They _are_interesting stories, but everything in these creepypastas is made up. Now lets all just go to-"

A sudden whooshing sound from the other side of the room caused everypony to look around for the source as Twilight to release her hold on the book in surprise, the tome falling to the floor.

"What in the world is that noise?" Rarity asked incredulously, looking more than a little concerned.

"Forget just the noise," Applejack pointed toward one of the bookshelves with a hoof, a sort of water-like ripple forming in front of it. "What the hay is _that_?!"

As the others looked in the direction that the farming pony was pointing, the mysteriously rippling increased in pace before the wave-like form suddenly seemed to form into a a darkened tunnel, the ripples tearing a hole in the fabric of their reality. A majority of the bookcase was now obscured by the appearance of the portal. The mysterious entryway could only really be described as a tunnel, with a dark purple, shimmering aura appearing to outline the edges of a pathway near the bottom, brief bursts of color appearing to flash to the sides. But what colors there were were dulled, and the pathway seemed to sway back and forth. But even the wispy path and flashes of muted color seemed to be smothered by darkness several feet in, a darkness that extended onward to who-knows-where.

The seven stared at it, dumbfounded at the rift's sudden appearance. After a stunned silence that hung in the room, Spike was the first one to speak.

"It's a... portal." he said, looking both wary and intrigued as he stepped a bit closer to the unusual entryway.

"Don't go near it, Spike." Twilight said firmly. Her eyes narrowed, intently gazing at the illuminated pathway, and how it seemed to simply fade into the shadows. "We don't know what it is."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "It's a pathway, obviously!"

"I _meant_ what's it _in _it," the purple unicorn said in exasperation, rolling her eyes. "And why is it here?"

Fluttershy stayed back, but she was still perplexed by it as much as everypony else. "I don't like how dark it looks."

"And it looks all wavy!" Pinkie exclaimed. She subconsciously - or perhaps it was consciously, one could rarely tell with Pinkie - started swaying in rhythm of the pathway's back-and forth motion.

"Maybe Slender Pony's hiding in there!" Rainbow laughed.

"Rainbow, this is no time for-"

A noise from the gateway instantly stopped Twilight's scolding. It sounded like laughter. Faint, echoing laughter.

"... games," she finished quietly.

The laughter seemed to increase in volume.

"R-Rainbow," Rarity stammered, glancing over at the cyan pegasus. "Please tell me this is just... one of your pranks?" She looked around nervously at the expanse that surrounded them. "A really... ominous prank?"

"If this _is_ a prank, it ain't funny," Applejack muttered in an irritated tone, looking in Rainbow's direction as well. "It's _way_too creepy."

But it was clear by the shocked look in Rainbow Dash's magenta eyes that this was definitely not a prank. She was just as confused as everypony else.

For a few tense moments, everything was quiet. But that silence was quickly broken as, almost in an instant, what looked like a myriad of large black tentacles shot out of the portal and quickly wrapped around the ponies and dragon.

"What the hay?!"

"Huh?!"

"AHH!"

"What's going on?!"

"What _are _these things?!"

"Help!"

They tried to kick, fly away, and blast magic energy to escape, but to no avail. The grip that the tentacles had on them was incredibly strong. Not enough to suffocate them, but somehow tight enough so they couldn't escape. They almost seemed to have a supernatural chill to them.

As if been reeled in on a fishing line, the seven were tugged into the portal, having barely enough time to see the light of the library disappear as the portal closed behind them, encasing them all in the misty darkness, the dark flashes of color and purple-bordered pathway their only source of illumination.

Everyone in the group screamed as they were forcibly tugged by the mysterious tendrils, only managing wide-eyed looks at each other in the occasional moments of visibility. Where was it they were being taken, and where had these tendril things come from? And why?

Though the group's terrifying ride didn't last long, when the end of the portal's pathway came into view, things only got worse.

A figure was looming at the end of the tunnel, seeming to stare directly at them. A earth pony with no mane who towered over them, sporting a black suit and a chalk-white face devoid of the features that a normal pony had. He was clearly the source of those tentacle-like appendages wrapped around them, as his long black tail was split into a myriad of tendrils that had reached out to grab them.

All seven of the group instantly knew who it was.

"SLENDER PONY!" Fluttershy shrieked, though not as loudly as she would have had she not been out of breath from screaming.

But seconds before reaching the end, Slender Pony moved out of the way, causing the seven captives to be pulled through and land on the cold stone floor with a thud, accompanied by the sound of the portal closing behind them. The tendrils restraining Twilight and her friends released their holds and formed back into Slender Pony's tail.

Everypony shakily rose to their hooves (or feet, in Spike's case), and managed a quick glance of their new surroundings. They had indeed landed on a hard stone surface, but it was as if there was a spotlight above that only shone on them. Everything else aside from the new arrivals and Slender Pony was shrouded in darkness.

Their attention was then fixed on the tall, thin stallion who had brought them to this place, the only other being with them in the concealing darkness. From the way Slender Pony was standing, they could now see his cutie mark, a sketchy black circle with an 'X' crossing through it.

"Just like the story," Spike said in a hushed whisper. Though he knew with a sinking feeling that this was no story, it was real. As impossible as it seemed, it was real.

Twilight immediately charged up her magic, eager to fight, but at the same time trembling as she stared into the blank white face of this urban legend turned real. She was trembling not only from having the wind knocked out of her from the sudden pulling and landing, but because of the creature standing before them. After everything she had just said, assuring everypony else that Slender Pony wasn't real, here he was... right in front of them...

"Why did you bring us here?!" Twilight demanded, stepping closer despite her nervousness and charging up her magic still further.

She hadn't really expected Slender Pony to answer, but nopony expected to hear two voices that seemed to echo around them, the source seeming to be from somewhere above.

"Because we needed to get some new participants for our game."

The seven of them instantly looked upward toward the source of the voices, but not before noticing Slender Pony suddenly fade away.

"Hey!" Spike exclaimed in shock. "Wh-Where'd Slender Pony go?!"

"Oh, don't worry," one of the two former voices said - a mare. "He's up here, with us!"

"Who are you?" Twilight called out, squinting to see in the clouded darkness.

"Don't worry, said the second of the two voices, a stallion this time. "We'll introduce ourselves to you very soon!"

Suddenly the black, misty-like atmosphere overhead faded away to reveal the larger expanse, a little of the darkness on their level fading away as well. It didn't completely reveal the area they were in, but they could see one part of their floor and the area above - enough to gain a gauge on their surroundings.

"Woah..." Pinkie Pie said when the view began to clear, her blue eyes wide. "It's _huuuuuge_!"

From what they could see, the area they were in seemed almost like a circular arena that branched off into different pathways, almost every corner showing a variety of portals much like the one that they had just come through. As they looked upward, it seemed that there were separate, circular levels with passageways just like those of the floor they were now on.

"Wait a minute..." Twilight tilted her head, her eyes clearly expression her utter confusion. "It looks like each of those floors are _bigger_than the preceding one. "Unless there's quite a bit more on these floors that we're not seeing as far as floor length goes, technically a structure wouldn't be able to support itself properly like this." She frowned. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Like I said once before, Twilight Sparkle," a familiar voice said, "what fun is there in making sense?"

The group whirled around at the voice, visibly shocked as more of the black smoke cleared, revealing the spirit of chaos himself, Discord. Rather than wearing a smile as they suspected he would, the draconequus looked rather irritated, his arms crossed.

"Discord!" Rainbow Dash shouted, eyes narrowed, looking like she was going to charge straight at him if he tried anything funny.

"Yes, it's me." The draconequus's expression wasn't lit up with the mischievous glint that it had the last time they had encountered him, but rather looked unusually perplexed.

"But we turned you into stone last time we saw you!" Rarity said, both fearful and confused. It was clear that everypony else was thinking the same thing. "How in Equestria are you out again?"

To everyone's surprise, Discord put his front paw and claw in the air in a sort of "I don't know" shrug, and his red eyes revealed genuine puzzlement in their gaze. "I have no idea, my little ponies - I was there, in the Canterlot Gardens, minding my own 'turned-into-stone' business." His voice was understandably bitter. "Then suddenly a dark portal opens up and I'm whisked away by these black tentacle things-"

"That's exactly what happened to us!" Twilight blurted out. The others looked just as surprised - none of them could accuse Discord of lying if he was describing the exact same thing.

"You shouldn't interrupt, Twilight Sparkle," the spirit of chaos said in a distinctly irritated tone. "Anyway, so the moment I'm grabbed by those tentacles and dragged through the portal, I lost my form of being encased in stone." He stopped hovering in the air and landed on the ground with a sigh. "Ordinarily that would have been great - free to roam the land and cause chaos once again! But _something_ about it held me there, and it neutralized my powers of teleportation. And next thing I know, I'm thrown into this place with a these others. And now _you're_here." Discord looked pensive. "And if I'm right, I think you seven are the last ones."

"Hold it," Applejack said, arching her brow. "Others? Last ones?" Who are you talking about?"

Discord sighed. "Oh, what, do you think we're the _only_ones here?"

As Discord spoke, the mist began to clear away, and another figure appeared beside him.

"Chrysalis?!"

The changeling queen sighed, mouth twisted into an irritated snarl. "Yes, yes, I got here the same way that you all did." She pointed at Discord. "We were just discussing our situation a short while before _you_all arrived."

"Is..." Fluttershy gulped, looking around at the mist that concealed most of the area. "Is anypony else here?"

"Considering that _we're_here against all odds, I'd say it's pretty likely," the changeling queen muttered irritably, glancing upward as if searching for her unseen captors.

As if responding to Chrysalis's statement, the black smog began to fade a little more, just enough to see a few more of the ponies that were present. Applejack's expression changed into one of horror.

"Big Macintosh?! A-Apple Bloom?!" The farming pony stammered for words, as she saw her two siblings looking frightened, confused, and surprised to see Applejack. "You're here too?!"

"Eeeyup," the large red pony said sadly.

"Applejack!" Apple Bloom cried out.

"I thought y'all were havin' a sleepover with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle!"

"We were," the voice of Rarity's younger sister replied before the mis cleared to reveal her and Scootaloo, looking equally as scared as Apple Bloom.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity shrieked, tears pricking at her eyes as she saw that her sister had been dragged into this terrible place. "No!"

Wide-eyed, the young fillies attempted to run over and join their sisters, but suddenly were knocked back by an invisible force.

"Ow!"

"What the hay?"

Applejack's eyes widened. "What in tarnation is going on?!"

"I can't get over to you!" Apple Bloom called, steadying herself.

Scootaloo trotted over to where her friends had rebounded from and knocked on the seemingly empty space with a hoof. "It's like there's an invisible wall or something!"

As Rarity looked closer, she could see that there seemed to be a faint shimmering from where Scootaloo had hit the barrier. "It's a magical barrier that's separating us."

"I'm guessing that's all just a sick practice by our 'hosts', whoever they are," Chrysalis muttered.

But the introductions weren't finished quite yet as the disappearing mist brought more ponies into visibility.

"Hi guys," another voice said as Derpy came into view, with a familiar brown pony standing next to her. Somehow Derpy managed to sound less worried then she looked.

"Derpy? Doctor?"

"Yep," Doctor sighed. "It seems we've found ourselves in the same sort of... unusual circumstances."

Derpy managed a smile. "Good to see you guys!" The moment the words were out of her mouth, the gray pegasus instantly tried to correct herself. "...I-I mean, I would say that it's good to see you because we're not alone, but it's _not_because we're... wherever this is." She glanced at her friend. "Uh, Doctor, where are we?"

Doctor sighed. "Honestly, Derpy, I'm just as stumped as you are."

"Did you do something that caused a rift in time and space again, Doctor?" the gray pegasus said half-accussingly, brow arched in a questioning gesture. "The tail of that tall pony thing looked almost like a flying tentacle-y version of the Vashta-"

"Trust me," Doctor said, "whatever the rift was that brought us here, it wasn't my fault!" He looked thoughtful. "Though come to think of it, I'm sure I've seen that pony-like creature _somewhere_before..."

"He's in a story," Derpy pointed out. "Slender Pony."

"Oh. Well, they do say that stories have their basis in fact..." Doctor's eyes turned slightly upward in thought. "I wonder though, if 'Slender Pony' is now confirmed to be real, then where did he come from?"

Derpy shrugged.

Pinkie finally voiced the question that was on all their minds as she raised her two front hooves: "Wait a minute, how many of us _are_here?!"

"From that smokey stuff, I'm guessing a lot..." Derpy said hesitantly, turning her mismatched eyes in the direction of the black smog that shielded a large portion of the supposed circular arena.

As the smoke cleared completely, there were murmurs of surprise and horror as everypony could finally see each other at last.

"Oh dear..." Doctor said quietly, glancing worriedly at all those present in the arena.

In another small group cut off by an invisible barrier, there were a few ponies that were easily recognizable to Twilight and her friends - the schoolteacher, Cheerilee, and two of the CMC's classmates, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The musical ponies, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were there, as were Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon... and the zebra who lived in the Everfree Forest, Zecora.

"At last, that mist is starting to clear," Zecora said, relief briefly written on her face as more of the assembled came into view. "But there are far more than I originally feared."

"Zecora!" Twilight exclaimed. "Did... did you come here the same way we did? The portal and Slender Pony?"

The zebra sighed, speaking in her traditional rhyming pattern. "When Slender Pony appeared and came for me, there was no time for me to flee." She glanced in the direction where Slender Pony had once been. "I tried to fight and escape its hold... but it seemed to entrap me in an unearthly cold."

"That's how it was with us too..." Rarity said, shuddering a little at the memory. It was if those tentacles had frozen them, leaving them unable to escape.

A glance around soon revealed that Gilda and Trixie were present as well, with the griffon looking like she wanted to beat up whoever had brought them there. Knowing Gilda, she'd have the full capability to do so if she wished.

Pinkie stared, her expression displaying an annoyed frown at the memories that surfaced. "Those meanies are here too?"

Luckily for Pinkie, neither Gilda nor Trixie seemed to hear her comment, as they were debating with each other.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you release her!" the blue unicorn shouted upward, hoping somepony would hear. "This is unacceptable!"

"Shut it," Gilda snapped. "I don't think whoever brought us here is gonna listen to some stuck-up pony who talks about herself like that-"

Trixie whirled around at the griffon, glaring. "I'm not all too fond of your tone night now."

"I'll talk in whatever tone I want," Gilda shot back.

As the black smog began to fade faster, the others could see two familiar businessponies and a certain minotaur.

"I must say Flim," Flam commented to his brother. "This is quite a predicament we've found ourselves in."

"Couldn't agree more, Flam," Flim said. "That was probably just about the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life.

"And ol' Iron Will has a feeling it's gonna get worse," Iron Will pointed out with an irritated tone, looking around for any sign of their captors. "I've never talked about preparing for this in any of my seminars." He frowned. "When we get out of here, maybe I should cover that..."

"I'm not sure how well other ponies would take 'Supernatural Survival Guide' very seriously," Flam said doubtfully.

Iron Will frowned at him, snorting slightly.

As the smoke began to clear still further, another voice spoke out of the gloom. "Twilight... oh no... you're here too..."

Twiight gasped at the voice, stunned. She knew that voice so well, had practically grown up with the being it belonged to... "No... it can't be..."

To everyone's shock, even the royals of Canterlot - Shining, Cadance, Luna and Celestia - had somehow gotten dragged into this same large convergence. Celestia had been the one who had spoken.

"No!"

_They can't be here... not them, not them!_

Dismayed that the Princesses and her family were present in this horror-place, unwilling to believe it, Twilight hurried over to reach them, to see if they were real yet praying that they weren't...

And she smacked straight into the barrier that separated them, sending her reeling as she attempted to regain her focus.

"We were hoping that _thing_wouldn't have gotten you too," Cadance sighed. "I... I kept trying to reassure Shining that you'd be fine..."

"Are you okay, Twily?" Shining clearly looked worried for his younger sister, dismayed that she was even here in the first place.

"Physically, yes..." Twilight murmured with a melancholy sigh. She couldn't ignore the truth anymore - they were trapped in this nightmare world just as much as she was.

"We have to find some way out of this." Stamping her hoof, Luna turned her head upwards and called out in her Royal Canterlot Voice. "I DEMAND THAT YOU RELEASE US AT ONCE!"

Everypony cringed slightly at the volume.

"And I thought _you_were loud and demanding," Gilda muttered to the unicorn beside her, earning a glare from Trixie.

While there was no verbal response to Luna, the magical barriers separating them vanished, and everypony was able to converge in a single group. Amidst all the chatter, the populace were all discussing the same question: "What are we _doing_here?!"

"Where _are_we, Applejack?" Apple Bloom inquired, trembling from fear and coming close to her sister.

"I don't know," Applejack admitted, looking utterly miserable at the realization that her siblings and so many others had somehow arrived at the same place she and her friends had.

"I think we owe you all an explanation."

Everyone present looked upward at the voice, and they finally got a view of their hosts. On a platform that seemed to defy the laws of gravity, Slender Pony stared down at them, joined by three others.

The two taller ones easily stood out - a stallion and mare who seemed to glow with color, every part of them glimmering in every color in the spectrum. It was almost as if one was looking at them through a sort of prism, as their coloring seemed to mostly be of a crystaline blue-white, but it was often overtaken by the ever-changing flashes of color. There was another strange aspect of them as well - in an almost wraith-like appearance, the dim formations of wings and a horn could sometimes be seen, in that same unusual color scheme as the rest of their bodies. But like their colors, the horns and wings were never constant - one instant one would be there, then in a flash they were gone. As if they were primarily earth ponies, and the extra features were merely a trick of the light, an illusion they created. It was quite unnerving for the group to see these wraith-like ponies glancing down at them.

The smallest of the group was a white colt with a stringy black mane and tail, grinning down with a disturbingly wide smile and black-rimmed eyes. As the group carefully watched him, he didn't blink. _Could_he even blink? Either way, the sadistic way his eyes seemed to glint and his carved-in smile was terrifying. It was as if he wore that constant expression trying to scare other ponies on purpose.

"Now, introductions," the prism-like stallion said, for he had been the one who had spoken earlier. "You all know Slender Pony, since he brought you here. But _I_," he put a hoof to his chest, "am Lightning Prism."

"And I'm Crescent Beam," the mare followed in turn.

The pair now spoke in unison. "But you can call us the Iridescents."

"And this," Crescent gestured to the young colt beside her. "Is Jeff."

"Well, thanks for the intro," the colt said with his ever-present smile. "Finally there's gonna be carnage!"

"Carnage?!"

"What kind of colt feels _happy_at the idea of ponies getting brutally injured?!" Cheerilee exclaimed, staring up in disbelief at the demented young pony.

"Apparently that sick twisted pony," Gilda muttered. "That's horror story stuff!"

"You should know that how I got this way could be considered a horror story." Jeff's brow furrowed in anger as he brandished his knife. "Next one of you to insult me gets a knife to their throat!"

Celestia stepped forward, her eyes staring at Jeff with a challenging gaze. "You, young colt, shouldn't even _dare_to hurt these ponies, or you'll have to answer to me."

Jeff laughed mockingly. "I'd like to see ya try, Princess! I could tear you apart if I wanted to!"

"Now Jeff," Lightning Prism chided with a stern glance, "the carnage will have to wait. We're only on the first level, remember?"

Jeff slumped down slightly, the expression on his face a mixture of anger and resentment. Everypony could tell that the eternally-smiling, eyelid-less pony would quite happily murder any one of them if he got the chance.

"Hey, lame-o," Gilda snapped. "Don't think some little colt like you is gonna go and try to threaten me!"

She started to fly up toward him, but stopped when, to everypony's surprise, Jeff pulled out a sharp knife and aimed it directly at the gryphon. Gilda's eyes widened, both from the shock of hitting another invisible barrier and the surprise of the colt threatening to use a knife on her.

Jeff laughed. "You wanna bet on that?" he taunted in a sing-song voice. "I've had enough practice to get a good aim."

A tangible chill shot through several members of the group. Jeff spoke about stabbing somepony else with a knife like it was all a game to him. And he was just a _colt_, probably only a few years older than Apple Bloom.

Gilda looked up at the four in rage. "You are one _sick_little scumbag of a colt." Everyone could tell by her voice that by "sick", the griffon meant "demented" rather than "cool".

Rainbow Dash stared up boldly, trying to be brave despite her unease. "Well we can break that barrier!"

All of the members of the group who possessed wings attempted to charge at the barrier, joined by the magical energy of the unicorns and alicorns in attendance.

"Not so fast!" Cresent Beam announced, pressing a button on the platform with a click.

Instantly, an ethereal bolt of light jolted through the lower level, instantly causing all of the ponies with wings to fall to the ground, and the magic from those with horns to sputter out and fade.

"Huh?!

"What?!"

"How'd that happen?!" Rainbow gasped.

Twilight attempted to charge up her magic, but all she could produce was a few small sparks. "Wha- I can't use my magic!"

Chrysalis attempted to change her form, but though the signature green flames appeared around her, her appearance was just the same as before. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Just as planned!" Lightning said proudly. "It's all part of our rules. In order to go through our games, you need to have limited flying and limited magic.

Discord looked absolutely indignant. "Hey!" He glared at the four, hovering a bit off the ground. "Stop stealing my rules!" He pointed at the ponies who had wielded the Elements of Harmony. "I had _them_go through that same sort of thing! Quit copying my tactics!"

"We haven't neutralized your abilities completely," Lightning Prism said with a wave of his hoof, staring right down at Discord. "We've simply made it so that those who can fly can, at most, hover about a foot, and magic spells can be used just enough to see by if you need light in a dark area."

Crescent Beam smiled, one front hoof on the other as she counted off the list. "No teleporting, no blasting away enemies, no flying over obstacles - you are all going through these games as equally as possible."

Twilight glared up at them. "What do you mean by 'games'?"

"Look around and above you!"

Everyony fell silent as they took in the pathways and portals around them, glancing upward at the circular layers above them, the various paths seeming to change almost as rapidly as the Iridescents' colors.

Scootaloo was the first to break the silence. "And?"

"You're a bold little filly." Lightning smirked, his muti-colored eyes seeming to brighten. "Anyway, every portal here projects a pony into a world of the 'creepypastas'."

Twilight and her friends all looked nervously at each other.

"Hold on a minute," Vinyl said, puzzled. "You mean that creepy urban legend stuff?"

"Exactly." Lightning then nodded to Crescent, allowing her to continue the explanation.

"These creepypastas, you see, aren't just stories - as the appearance of Slender Pony and Jeff here should make you well aware of. So we figured that we'd bring a few of you here to experience them, as a test for us."

"A _survival_test," Jeff clarified, his smile seeming to grow wider.

Crescent continued. "The point is, there are 8 floors here, which we call Levels, and in each Level there are many portals to these creepypasta worlds, as you can see here." She paused, giving the participants time to look around at the portals on their level, which seemed to fade in and out. "You need to survive each creepypasta that you go through, which we can either have you go through alone or with another pony or two. Eventually, if one or a group of you are lucky, until one of you ends up finding a gateway within that world that will lead you to a small forest. There, you will be able to find one of the Slender Notes, which are necessary to proceed to the next Level."

Lightning took over the explanation. "Once a Slender Note is found, everypony who is still left will be transported to the next Level, where the stories will become harder to survive, or at the very least come out unharmed from."

"So we have to go through these tons of stories that could hurt or kill us, _just_to find a bunch of silly old notes?!" Diamond Tiara shouted. She looked as if somepony had demanded her to play hide and seek in a dumpster as big as her house, filled with year-old rotten garbage and a tub of quicksand that could suck her in if she got too close, all for the purpose of find a needle that wasn't worth a bit.

"Those Notes are more important than you think, young filly," Lightning Prism explained with a stern frown, eyes glimmering, "but... yes. Think of it as a scavenger hunt of sorts."

_Yes... a scavenger hunt...we've had our share of those..._After briefly glancing upward for a moment, thinking about their "scavenger hunt", Crescent Beam continued for her irritated partner. "In addition, the more Levels you traverse, the greater the chance of one or more of you getting Slender Sickness."

Cadance tilted her head, curiosity outmatching her fear. "What's Slender Sickness?"

Silver Spoon turned her gaze toward Slender Pony. "Does that mean we'll start to look like him? All faceless and stuff?"

Slender Pony turned his head, and the assembled had a feeling that he was glaring down in disapproval at Silver Spoon's comment.

"No," Lightning said. "We'll explain it in greater detail when one of you gets it... best to keep it a surprise." The shimmering pony laughed, a low chuckle that sounded as cold as winter ice.

With that, Slender Pony vanished, leaving his space on the platform empty.

Pinkie blinked her eyes, making sure she had seen correctly as she twisted her head to look around. "Where'd Slender Pony go?"

"Oh, don't worry," Jeff said, eyes shining. "He'll be around."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of Slendy coming back..." Pinkie said quietly, her blue eyes holding a glimmer of nervousness even as she laughed a little.

Crescent Beam picked up from where her companion left off. "Seeing as there are 8 Levels, the goal is to find all 8 Slender Notes."

"And what happens when we find all 8 notes?" Celestia asked, standing tall and looking sternly at their hosts. "Then you'll let us go?"

"_If_you manage to find all 8 and survive, then you all get to go back home," Crescent finished. "... Those of you that live through it all, anyway."

That single sentence unnerved everypony in the large room.

"There's no guarantee on survival," Jeff pointed out with a tone that was far too happy for anypony's comfort. "Except perhaps on this first Level, unless you really mess up." The young colt scoffed.

The fact that they were about guaranteed to survive on at least this first level only alleviated everypony's fears very slightly. At the very least, they wouldn't step through one of these portals and instantly die.

"No need to worry," Crescent assured them. "We'll have a little more to explain when you get to Level 2, at least."

"You'd better," Shining said with a glare, determined to do whatever it took to stop them and get out of there.

The Iridescents smirked at the defiance of the participants below them. "Oh trust us, this will be fun. But, for now, participants..."

The Levels above the crowd were suddenly obscured by the black smog that had surrounded them before, leaving the participants on the Level 1, the various portals opening and closing around them.

They didn't notice the eyes of the Iridescents glance briefly at each other before they turned their heads down to the participants.

"Let the games begin."


	3. Level 1: Upstairs

**A/N: Well, third chapter is here, and this time it's the first to have a creepypasta! It's a more short and obscure one, but I hope you like it! **

**-0-0-0-**

**Chapter 3: Level 1 - Upstairs **

As the Iridescents finished their introduction, the shifting of the portals seemed to settle from their prior rapid opening and closing. One in particular opened up that appeared to be the intended one to go through, close to a small stairway to the left of the arena. Unlike the others had in the past, this one remained relatively steady and open.

The overlooking ponies glanced in the portal's direction, prompting their guests to follow their gaze. As they peered into the portal's entryway, the group could see that it looked like a sort of smoky dark blue orb, though as they looked at it closer, the misty forms of stairs briefly showed themselves.

"So then," Crescent Beam began, her voice echoing in the chamber, "it seems that this portal here is the first to be open to the story worlds. 'Upstairs', interesting choice for the start; short, creepy yet not too traumatizing..."

"Wait a minute," Flim said, looking curiously up at the hosts, "you seem to be implying that you're surprised. I thought you ran this place."

"Or at least you act like it," Flam added.

"When a portal opens to a specific world, it is simply the will of this place's laws," Lightning Prism explained. "We are not in charge of which portals are made accessible. It is not our choice."

"So you mean whatever portal opens, you don't pick it?" Sweetie Belle questioned. "It just happens?"

"Precisely."

"But how-"

"There are forces that reside here beyond our control," Lightning interrupted, with a cryptic glance upward.

The others followed his gaze, but saw nothing out of the ordinary from what they had seen earlier.

"However," Crescent said, taking over in the speech with a smile on her face. "We _can_ choose which ones participate in in each specific story world. So..." Her luminescent eyes looked down at the group, and instantly seemed to find her target. She smiled.

"How about you, curious little Sweetie Belle?"

There was a cry of protests from the group of participants.

"WHAT?!" Rarity demanded, her eyes seeming to radiate anger at the thought of her sister going through the trials. Defensive for her sister, she angrily tried to fire a burst of magic at the Iridescents above, only to have a small spark of magic come out of her horn. The anger was joined by sadness in her eyes as Rarity recalled that she couldn't defend her sister with magic after what the Iridescents had done to them. "Don't you DARE put my little sister through this!"

The young filly took a few paces back, caught off guard at being picked. "Wh-Why me?"

"Why not?" Crescent countered with a shrug. "You volunteered in a way, Sweetie Belle, with your question."

"That _wasn't_ volunteering!" Rarity said with a stomp of her hoof, moving in front of her sister as if to shield her from the threat above. "She shouldn't be punished for being curious by going through your ridiculous games!"

"Better now then later," Lightning Prism chuckled slightly, placing his hooves over the platform's balcony to peer more steadily at them as he spoke in an authoritative tone. "Think of this not as a punishment, but a privilege. She gets to start out on one of the easier ones, and nothing here on the first level will kill you. If anything, it's a mercy to have her first experience be an easy one."

Jeff snorted and muttered something under his breath about wishing that he could just tear that young filly apart right now to satisfy himself. Luckily for everyone else, they didn't hear the maniacal colt's words, though they did see the hostile glare directed at them with his lidless eyes, a gaze that craved blood to be spilled.

Everyone else fell silent, knowing thatLightning had a point - it was better for her to go through one of the easier ones then to have a more likely chance to go through a more potentially deadly one later.

With a small click from the platform, a thin rectangular portion of the arena's floor began to open up, causing the ponies in the vicinity - which in this case were Derpy and the Doctor - to leap out of the way. The brief rectangular gap in the floor was quickly filled as the assembled participants watched a large screen rise out of the floor.

"What's the screen for?" Pinkie called out.

"Glad you asked," Crescent replied. "This screen here will allow us all to see what the participants involved are going through as they travel through the various worlds you'll encounter."

"That includes the images of your gruesome demises later!" Jeff laughed with a psychopathic grin.

Almost everyone looked unnerved at that, reality hitting them that they would be likely to die at some point in these story trials.

"_Jeff..._"

The colt merely tossed his knife back and forth in his hooves at the warning tone in Lightning's voice.

"Now, step through, Sweetie Belle..."

The cream-colored filly stepped forward a couple steps, meeting the worried eyes of her sister before going further.

It was clear that the young mare was struggling to keep her breathing steady as she hugged her sister. "You'll be okay, Sweetie Belle," Rarity assured her younger sister, managing to force a smile onto her face. "We're still on Level 1, these are just creepy ones... you'll get out of it..."

Sweetie Belle swallowed hard, and, with one look back, stepped through the night-blue orb of the portal vanishing from sight.

It was at that moment that the large screen started up so that everyone else could see the first of the stories come to life...

One second Sweetie Belle was surrounded by the misty blue aura of the portal, the next, she found herself in a completely different setting to the one she had just left. In fact, it was a place she recognized immediately.

She blinked her large green eyes, barely able to believe it. She couldn't be here, not after the place she had just been... but there was no mistaking where she was.

"I'm... at _home_?!"

"Why do you sound so surprised, Sweetie?" a familiar voice said from behind the young filly. "Why wouldn't you be at home?"

Sweetie Belle whirled around at once, though a part of her instantly relaxed the moment she saw who it was. The pony before her was a bright pink unicorn with a purple mane, smiling gently down at her.

"Mom?"

"Of course, honey." Mrs. Belle walked over to her daughter and gently ruffled her mane with a hoof. "Why do you look so shaken up? Is something wrong?"

Sweetie Belle looked up at her mother, thinking of how to respond. This wasn't her real mother, just a carbon copy, a way that the place had gotten inside her head. And yet this seemed fine, no scariness to it at all.

For now.

"I... I had a bit of a nightmare," she finally said, figuring that was the best thing to say. "I was thinking about it." Which, even in this story universe, wasn't too far from the truth. Except the "nightmare" she had been thinking of wasn't one that she could wake up from.

With compassion in her light blue eyes, Sweetie Belle's "mother" pulled her close. "I'm here for you to talk to me about it, okay?"

The filly managed a small smile. "Okay-"

It was then that she was suddenly cast into darkness.

**-0-0-**

Rarity's eyes widened, anxious at the sudden darkness. "SWEETIE BELLE!"

"And _this_ must be where the scary part comes," Discord commented as the others watched the screen. He yawned "How predictable and boring."

"This is Level 1, remember?" Chrysalis said in a huff. "I think these first stories are going to be relatively tame."

"Wake me when we get to that point," the draconequus said in a bored tone, placing his lion paw under his chin. "It's no fun when everything's orderly!"

Everyone else's attention was focused on the screen as the story's atmosphere quickly came into view again.

-**0-0-**

When the darkness cleared, allowing Sweetie Belle to see, she let out a faint gasp of unease. She could see that she was still in the house, but it was dark. Nighttime, and there was nopony in the house to be found. In contrast to the peaceful air of her home and the warm embrace of her mother moments before, her house now seemed sinister and unwelcoming.

This definitely was where the scarier part of the story started. But where had her "mother" gone off to?

"M-Mom?" Sweetie Belle called out hesitantly, her voice echoing in the darkness.

"Yeeeeees?"

It was her mother's voice, and yet it seemed different. Unnerving. Quieter, a bit hushed, and it didn't seem to come from the same level.

Rather, it came from the upper floor of the house.

The frightened filly came to the stairway, glancing upward. While ordinarily the white wooden staircase was a welcome sight, especially when Sweetie Belle wanted to be up in her room for a while, the newly darkened atmosphere seemed to cause the flight of stairs to be rickety, unstable, as if it was going to collapse at any moment.

Sweetie Belle gulped. Perhaps her mother wasn't up there after all. Perhaps she had just been imagining it. "Mom?'

"Yeeeeees?" the same voice again, still traveling down from the rooms upstairs. "I'm here, Sweetie..."

She realized that she had the choice between two options - going upstairs toward the supposed voice of her mother, or staying down here in the dark. Not that it looked as if there was much more light up there.

Eventually, however - whether through the tug of the voice, the desire to find some comfort, or her own curiosity - Sweetie Belle gingerly stepped up the stairway, forcing herself not to flinch under the unusual creaking of the boards under her hooves.

After what seemed to be 5 minutes, but was really only a few seconds, Sweetie Belle stepped up to the second floor. It was even dimmer up on the second floor, the only light coming from the cracks of a door at the end of the hall.

Her own room. Her mother - at least, what this place had created to be her mother - must be in there.

"Mom?" Sweetie Belle called again as she stepped a little closer, stopping herself from trembling. "Are you there?"

"I'm here, Sweetie Belle," the voice of her mother called in a tone both haunting and serene. The voice was indeed coming from behind the door.

A cold chill seemed to come through the hall as the young filly moved toward the door, her hoofsteps slow as if she were hypnotized.

"Come here, Sweetie... didn't you say you had something to talk to me about?"

"Yes..." she murmured quietly, coming closer and closer to the closed door. "I did."

"Why don't you come in here and tell me?" The voice of Mrs. Belle echoed just behind the doorway, even as Sweetie Belle was right next to it.

She knew that it was likely a trap. She knew that it couldn't be her real mother behind that door. But despite her misgivings, Sweetie Belle placed her hoof on the door, ready to nudge it open...

Suddenly, a noise caused the young unicorn to jump - the sound of the door opening downstairs. And the sound of the door rotating on its hinges was joined by a voice.

"Sweetie, are you home?"

Sweetie Belle's heart leapt in her chest - it was her mother's voice again. It sounded stronger, like her real mother, and not the ethereal echo of a voice she had heard for the past minute or so. Even in this strange story world, she could tell that the voice downstairs was her mother, her true mother, and the thing behind the door with her mother's voice was just an illusion. A trick.

"I'm here, Mom!" There was no disguising the relief in Sweetie Belle's voice as she began to start down the hallway and hurry down the stairs... but something stopped her before she placed her hoof on that first step.

"If my real mom is down there..."

Slowly, Sweetie Belle glanced over at the door to her room. The light was no longer present along the bottom and sides of the door, it was just as dark as the rest of the second floor.

In the silence, the door opened a crack.

It was as if the chilled air on the second floor had frozen Sweetie Belle to the spot as the door opened wider. She wanted to run, call for help, but at the same time there was something about it that seemed to pull her in.

The door opened a little wider, to reveal the figure who had been hidden from the filly's sight until now. It looked like her mother - exactly like her mother, in fact.

But Mrs. Belle's appearance quickly changed. Her face and body became pale and skeletal, almost appearing to look like a cross between a pony and a spider. Her eyes were no longer blue, now instead they gleamed a strange, cold black.

"Come to me, my dear daughter..."

The creature's now only bore a faint resemblance to that of Sweetie Belle's mother, taking on much more of that eerie, echoing tone that had only been marginally present before.

The doorway where the creature taking the form of her mother stood then seemed to gain its own form of gravitational pull, beginning to pull Sweetie Belle towards it. Towards the pony-spider creature who had taken the form of her mother.

"Mom!" Sweetie Belle cried out, trying to turn back toward the stairs despite the strength of the doorway's mysterious pull. "Help!"

But her mother downstairs didn't seem to hear her. The sucking pull of the door caused a sort of wind to whistle in her ears, pulling the struggling filly ever closer to the figure at the door.

"I _am_ your mother," she hissed.

That was the last that Sweetie Belle heard before the alluring tug of the doorway lifted her off the ground and straight into the waiting hooves of the pony disguised as her mother, the door slamming shut behind her...

And the next thing she knew, she found herself hurled out through the smokey blue portal she had come through, landing with a small yelp of surprise as she tumbled, half frightened and half relieved, onto the ground of the arena.


End file.
